By Mohamed T. Massaquoi
The Ministry of Agriculture has announced the commencement of a fish stock assessment mission, for the first time in 10 years.
The assessment being conducted with the help of the Chinese government will establish the quantity of fish in the country’s waters and their types. A Chinese research vessel which arrived in the country last month has already started collecting data, according to the Ministry which said the exercise was part of a project that also involves the digitalization of the monitoring system of the country’s waters.
Khadijatu Jalloh, Director of Fisheries, said the research which will last for three years would help the government determine not only the fish population, but also their sizes, biomass, and how often they reproduced. She told journalists on Thursday at the Ministry of Information and Communication’s weekly press conference that the assessment also entailed seeking in-depth information on the average number of eggs produced, the number of males versus females, how fast they grew, the habitat of newly hatched fish, their migration pattern, what they ate and the rate at which they died naturally.
Under the agreement with the Chinese, they have also deployed a Satellite-based fishing vessel monitoring system in the country’s territorial water, fitted with an Automated Identification System (AIS). Jalloh said this would enable the ministry to monitor in real time events in the country’s waters.
“With the Satellite based system, the minister will now sit in the office and see all the vessels in our territorial water,” she said.
“These devices, coupled with the patrol vessel and the six-mile inshore fiber glass boat and the smaller boats that we have now at community level, will help us with surveillance of our territorial water,” she said.
The facility, which she said also provided an extension to the Office of National Security, is geared towards achieving team work in the monitoring thereby preventing illegal entry and fishing into the country’s territorial waters. The government, Jalloh added, hoped this would also curtail tax evasion by fishing companies who avoid the system so as to evade tax.
The fishery sector contributes about 10 percent of the GDP in Sierra Leone, according to the Ministry.
© 2019 Politico Online
